"Did I hear aright?" asked Moore. "Did I hear some one call me a bully?"
"Please, oh, please, give me--that!" she pleaded, but Moore was not to be turned aside from his march to triumph.
"Did I hear some one say 'Tom, I am truly sorry for my crossness to-night'?" he asked.
"I won't say it," she declared, but her voice lacked determination.
"I really must be going," said Moore, taking a step towards the door.
"I hope so, Bessie," he replied, pausing.
"Tom, I am truly sorry for the cross things you have said to me to-night."
She mumbled it quickly, hoping he would not distinguish the adaptation she made in the sentence he had dictated; but Moore heard and defeated her.
"That won't do," he said sternly. "Try again."
The girl made an effort and proceeded with her unwilling penance in the meekest of tones.
"Tom, I am truly sorry for the cross things I have said to you to-night. Now give me it."
"Don't be in such a hurry, Bessie. There is more to be said."
"Not till you are all mine," he answered in his tenderest tones.
"That will be a long time," she said determinedly.
"I can wait, but to continue--Say 'You are an old nuisance, Tom, but I like to have you around.'"
"You are an old nuisance, Tom, but I like to have you around," she repeated, parrot-like; then she added sweetly, "I have something else I wish to tell you."
Deceived by her sentimental tone, Moore stepped near the curtains and like a flash she snapped the skirt off his arm and vanished behind her shelter.
"The deuce!" exclaimed Moore, in chagrin.
The curtains undulated violently as though some vigorous performance were being enacted behind them. The next moment Bessie, fully attired, swept out between them and across the room, her independence and peace of mind restored with the resumption of the purloined garment.
"Bessie," said Moore, persuasively, and she halted on the threshold in haughty response. "Bessie, won't you let me speak to you before you go?"
"I fear it will only be a waste of time, Mr. Moore," she answered.
"Yet I waited when you asked me to from behind the curtains," he said, a glint of laughter in his eyes.
Bessie winced, but the stare she favored him with was both cold and disdainful.
"But, Mr. Moore," she answered, "I had something to say to which you wished to listen."